Filmmaking in the 1930s had become an insular process with no need to go beyond the
studio walls. But by the mid 1940s it was as if all of the interesting and unique
places and backdrops in and around Los Angeles had just been discovered. This newfound
interest in location shooting was encouraged by local government officials as well.
The Los Angeles Police Department, seeing an opportunity to bolster its image, began
cooperating in a big way. Directors were allowed to shoot scenes inside police headquarters
which in those days was located within the city hall. And J. Edgar Hoover was eager
to help producers for a good plug. 1948’s The Street With No Name was among many
films given access to FBI facilities.

Noir stories were all contemporary so you didn’t need special sets or costumes, the
entire modern city could serve as a backdrop. The use of hard lighting and shadows
in noir meant less crew and equipment was needed at a location. In the creative
process of noir there would be little need for cranes and dollies. 1944’s Double
Indemnity would be a turning point in this evolution. Billy Wilder’s generous use
of location shots added a realism to the film that both audiences and critics took
note of. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards . Wilder was no doubt
motivated by the limited possibilities on the Paramount studio lot in his desire
to bring that realism to the film.

The major studio’s divestiture of their theater chains in 1948 provided opportunities
for independent producers who found contemporary crime dramas to be just the ticket
in terms of cost. Find a story, hire a cast and crew and go out into the environs
and shoot your film. More than 80 percent of the independently produced film noirs
were made after the court ordered divesture such was the impact. Many of these turned
out to be very good noirs. Of course everything was much simpler in those times.
There was not the maize of bureaucracy and permits that filmmakers encounter today.

Not every studio was quick to embrace the benefits of location shooting. MGM, and
to a lessor extent Warner Bros, had extensive back lots and they needed to justify
them. Louis B. Mayer at MGM in particular, never grasped the evolving taste of
audiences nor did he have any appreciation for the new style of film making. That
made MGM one of the laggards in the production of noirs. On the other hand, Warner
Bros. certainly produced its share of noirs and most of them quite good despite the
limitations of being filmed on the studio lot. But for any film noir aficionado
the differences are not only apparent, but in some cases distracting.

1950’s D.O.A. is an example of what location shooting did for a film. Here was a
film that had an intriguing storey and good characters. However the use of locales,
both in Los Angeles and San Francisco provided a realism and ambiance that could
not have been achieved on the set. When watching the film the viewer is reminded
at every turn the vitality of everyday life and of O’Brien’s impending mortality.
It’s one of the elements that makes the film work. Conversely, The Big Sleep, was
filmed entirely on Warner’s lot. It’s a classic film owing to many factors, but
it has an artificial feel about it. Within noir itself there also evolved the narrative,
or docudrama style of film. Films like He Walked By Night relied extensively on
location backdrops to give it authenticity.

Los Angeles of the late 1940s seemed to be the right place at the right time for
noir filmmakers. Raymond Chandler had already set the landscape in people’s minds
using Los Angeles as the backdrop in his successful detective novels. As directors
soon discovered, Los Angeles offered a wealth of interesting places for noir backdrops.
Everything from the art deco Union Train Station to the boat dock at Westlake Park
were finding their way into noir. But no area was more appealing than Bunker Hill
district.

Los Angeles was by no means the only place directors found interesting for noir,
they ventured to other cities as well. San Francisco, in particular offered the
unique setting of its bay, bridges and hills. San Francisco was also a short train
ride from Hollywood which didn’t bust the budget for producers. New York certainly
was a natural for noir but it took bigger budgets which could not always be justified.
Throughout the 1950s many of the noirs with New York stories were shot in Los Angeles
using New York footage as a backdrop. Nevertheless, some producers managed to use
New York in its entirety and their efforts paid off. The most definitive of these
is Mark Hellenger’s The Naked City. But this discussion is about Los Angeles, a
city that defined noir. Much of that fabric is gone in the never-ending cycle of
growth and renewal. But the directors of film noir who knew the shadowy back streets
of Los Angeles left a visual record of an era that is no more.

Los Angeles: Backdrop For Noir

The film noir era is best known for the emergence of the creative style and storytelling
that would define the genre. But equally important is the impact it had on the
location shooting of films. When sound became a viable part of film in 1927 the
studios evolved by building the large sound stages and expanded back lots so that
every aspect of filmmaking could be controlled. By the mid 1930s most of the major
studios had become self-sufficient film factories. Not unlike the many aircraft
factories that were sprouting up throughout Southern California at the time, they
were churning out films instead of airplanes. Like the industrial factories, the
electricians, painters, carpenters and all the other craft members needed to keep
things running would punch the time clock at the studios.

Keeping filmmaking within the confines of the studio walls also meant the studio
heads could better exert their control on cost. Filming outside the studio meant
extra time and increased cost. And besides, Hollywood had become quite adroit at
recreating anything they needed to sufficiently convince audiences as to what they
were seeing was real. The studios did maintain their library of stock footage for
use as backdrops whenever they needed, but by and large the decade of the 30s saw
little location shooting among Hollywood’s filmmakers. But that would change with
the beginning of film noir in the early 1940s.